Jawon Hamilton had started UCF’s first two games of the season and accumulated 11 starts in his time at UCF, but a leg injury in the first quarter of Saturday’s game led to surgery and a premature end to his 2017 season. Hamilton shared the news of his surgery on his Facebook page, saying his surgery went well and already focusing on the fact he will have three years of eligibility to use. Hamilton will be eligible for three years because he will qualify for a medical redshirt with his season-ending injury coming so early in the year.

UCF RB Jawon Hamilton posted on Facebook that his injury is season ending and he will take a medical redshirt this season. pic.twitter.com/drMzfrAyuq

Hamilton rushed for 495 yards and four touchdowns last year but never got a chance to have the impact he was expected to have in the offense this season. UCF blew out their first opponent of the year, FIU, and allowed Hamilton to get some early rest, and his injury occurred in the first quarter against Maryland after a storm-altered layoff interfered with UCF’s football schedule.

Junior Taj McGowan and sophomore Adrian Killins now step in as the running backs that will fill the void. Neither is designated as the starter over the other on the depth chart this week, which means head coach Scott Frost either wants to keep both involved or see which one proves capable of carrying the load moving forward. McGowan rushed for 156 yards and two touchdowns in 2016, and Killins had a team-high 6.5 rushing yards per attempt in 2016.

The other option available would be 6′-0″ 248-lb freshman Cordarrian Richardson. The big freshman has carried the football 11 times for 39 yards and a touchdown in the early stages of the season. He may not be ready for full-time rushing duties just yet, but he certainly brings a sizable advantage in short0-down situations with a little help from his blockers up front. Don’t be surprised if Frost finds ways to get him involved in the game plan as the Knights potentially go with a bit of a running back by committee in the next few weeks.

UCF hosts Memphis this week in a key conference battle, with the Tigers owning the fifth-best rushing defense in the AAC coming in. After that, UCF’s next two games are against Cincinnati and East Carolina. The Bearcats and Pirates have really struggled against the run so far this season, with 19 rushing touchdowns combined and an average of 264.0 and 274.5 rushing yards per game allowed, respectively. That would seem to suggest UCF has a good three-week stretch to figure out how best to use the running backs before having to make any final decisions for the second half of the season.

A day after it was announced on social media, Cal has officially added a Power Five transfer.

Sunday, Maurice “Moe” Ways revealed on Instagram that he would be transferring from Michigan to Cal. Monday evening, the Golden Bears announced that the wide receiver has signed a financial aid agreement with the university and will play for the football team in 2018.

Ways will be coming to Berkeley from Ann Arbor as a graduate transfer. The upcoming season will be his final year of eligibility.

In addition to the, uh, addition of Ways, Cal also announced that junior college outside linebacker Deon White has also been added to the roster.

“We are excited that Maurice and Deon are joining our program,” head coach Justin Wilcox said in a statement. “Both have tremendous upsides and with their skill sets we feel that they will help us immediately.”

A three-star member of the Wolverines’ 2014 recruiting class, Ways was rated as the No. 8 player at any position in the state of Michigan.

In 25 career games, the former Detroit Country Day high schooler caught eight passes for 71 yards. Ways started two of those contests, with both of those starts coming during his redshirt freshman season in 2015.

A Charlotte native, McClendon appeared in 21 career games as a Wolfpack. He completed 26-of-47 passes (55.3 percent) for 262 yards with one touchdown against four interceptions while rushing 40 times for 156 yards and two touchdowns.

At Baylor, McClendon will step into a depth chart with a hole left by a transfer of its own. The Bears spent 2017 juggling their QB1 spot between Arizona graduate transfer Anu Solomon, sophomore Zach Smith and freshman Charlie Brewer. Solomon graduated and Smith has transferred to Tulsa, meaning McClendon will have to compete with the rising sophomore and brother of former Texas Tech and Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Brewer. The younger Brewer was Baylor’s best signal caller in a downtrodden ’17 campaign, hitting 139-of-204 passes (68.1 percent) for 1,562 yards with 11 touchdowns against four interceptions.

The ACC and the American have struck a deal for a football officiating alliance, the American announced Monday. The new program will see the two conferences cooperate on all things officiating, from training to scheduling to evaluation.

With the move, the ACC’s Dennis Hennigan will oversee the alliance, while the American’s Terry McAulay will step down as the league’s coordinator of football officiating and the American will hire a new supervisor of football officials.

“We are excited to partner with the ACC regarding the administration of our football officiating program,” AAC commissioner Mike Aresco said in a statement. “This alliance will provide both conferences with a deep roster of the best college football officials and will provide for greater efficiency and consistency in the training and evaluation of officials as well as enhanced opportunities for the recruitment of officials. We look forward to working with Dennis Hennigan, who was regarded as one of the top on-field officials in college football and has since become a leader on the administrative side. I also want to thank Commissioner John Swofford for his cooperation in reaching this mutually beneficial arrangement.”

The new alliance means ACC officials could oversee a Tulane-Tulsa game, while AAC officials would work a Clemson-Georgia Tech game. The ACC-AAC Alliance will go into effect for the 2018 season.

The ACC and American Athletic Conference are coming together with the intent on improving officiating oversight between the two conferences. According to an announcement from the AAC, ACC supervisor of officials Dennis Hennigan will serve as the lead administrator and take on the responsibility of hiring and training officials used in both conferences.

“We are excited to partner with the ACC regarding the administration of our football officiating program,” AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco said in a released statement. “This alliance will provide both conferences with a deep roster of the best college football officials and will provide for greater efficiency and consistency in the training and evaluation of officials as well as enhanced opportunities for the recruitment of officials.”

The AAC reportedly removedTerry McAulay from his long-time role as the conference’s coordinator of football officiating, a role he held in the old Big East and carried over to the AAC amid conference realignment changes. The AAC confirmed McAulay will no longer be associated with the conference in that role. The statement from the AAC says the conference will hire a new Supervisor of Football Officials that will help manage the officiating in the AAC and act as a go-to contact for coaches around the league.

There is no word on whether or not this alliance will lead to a combined instant replay process with a central command hub for instant replay reviews. Instead, the alliance seems to focus on working with officials to ensure calls are being called consistently throughout each league. Having officials on the same page with calling penalties and managing a game has been a problem with few answers. This likely won’t guarantee a perfectly called game every week in each conference, but it may prove to be a step in the right direction.